Great stuff. I’ve always felt that Flash, in and of itself, actually holds a lot of promise as an animation tool. The problem comes from the fact that it’s capabilities provide so many “easy outs” for lazier animators. But there are some gems out there.

this just reminded me of something elliot cowan and i were discussing a while back– where did the term signal film come from? there’s absolutely nothing on the internets about it at all. sounds like a question for mr. beck if i’ve ever heard one.

“The problem comes from the fact that it’s capabilities provide so many “easy outs” for lazier animators.”

This is the Flash rap that probably tells more about commenters who say it rather than Flash itself.

Are people not aware that animators have been taking “easy outs” in every mode of animation for the last 100 years? Are they unaware of Terrytoons’ output? Bray Productions? They’ve never seen a Rankin-Bass Christmas special? Hanna-Barbera never happened? South Park? (I don’t regard those as meritless, but obviously economies have been taken.)

Is it “tweening” they fret over? That’s hardly a dominant technique in Flash. And the Cinderella clip that was up here a few days ago had inbetweens just as mechanical as what an automatic Flash tween might do.

Whoa, robcat, didn’t mean to ruffle any feathers. I never said “easy outs” haven’t been taken using more “traditional” animation methods. All I meant was that Joe Public can abuse Flash’s capabilities in much the same way they abuse the ready availability of clip-art, camcorders, Garage Band, etc.

In the past, at least, the shortcuts were being used by true animators. But, thanks to the internet and home computers, we are flooded by tons of REALLY bad toons done by amateurs who don’t have the patience or the talent to produce a decent piece.

Josef

Great animation. Way to go, Guy!

@robcat:
I work in Flash and After Effects and I can see jaggedsmile has a point. Bad Flash animation is everywhere. I personally think it’s more to the fact that many Flash animators don’t know how or when to use the “easy out” tools effectively. It’s not something that is commonly taught. Would you agree with that?